A Brief History of Rallying on Mull

( Provisional ) Leaderboard after 6 (of 17 Stages)

1 P MacKinnon/D Barritt (Subaru Impreza) 49m 48s
2 C Duffy/I Duffy (Ford Escort MkII) 50m 09s
3 D Harper/C Campbell (BMW MINI) 52m 36s
4 J MacGillivray/I Frazer (Ford Escort MkII) 52m 58s
5 J Cope/R Fagg (Subaru Impreza) 53m 04s
6 W Bonniwell/K Rae (Subaru Impreza) 53m 14s
7 T Pye/K Riddick (Subaru Impreza) 54m 00s
8 D Miller/A Bailey (Subaru Impreza) 54m 30s
9 P Kirtley/D jones (Subaru Impreza) 54m 32s
10 E O’Donnell/S Proud (Ford Escort MkII) 24m 44s

Some crews will go to bed happy and some disconsolate at the end of this first Leg of the 39th Tunnock’s Tour of Mull, but they’ll all go to bed well and truly kn*ck*r*d – and there’s still two Legs to go.

One man (or should that be ‘boy’?) who’ll go to bed happy is Paul MacKinnon. He leads Callum Duiffy by 21 seconds after the opening night tests. It hasn’t been plain sailing for either of them. Paul lost the power steering over the last two and he had to wrestle the Subaru round the bends while Callum found the drier conditions suited his tyres better but he’s got a trace of a misfire appearing at higher revs now.

And then it rained. A quick shower transformed the roads yet again.  Paul Kirtley found the Subaru a real handful on slicks and Daniel Harper had a hard landing in Calgary which damaged a front corner suspension. James MacGillivray overshot the big hairpin at Dervaig and later clipped a rock but he thinks he got away with it and is ready for a “big push tomorrow”. Tony Bardy replaced the broken front driveshaft so the Nissan is now driving through 4 wheels again. Tristan Pye and Kirsty Riddick are continuing their ‘Nature Watch’ on this Tour, this time they saw a deer. It was stood right in middle of t’road transfixed, so they had to slow up till it bounded off. Dave Miller rounded off his first night’s work with “I’m still here, that’s good enough for me.” Doug Weir got a puncture in Calgary but it was near the finish so he didn’t need to stop and Denis Biggerstaff heaved a big sigh of relief at the finish. He had a big 6th gear tank slapper with full lock both ways a few times before he got it sorted. His earlier time loss on the 1st stage was due to two punctures. Denis doesn’t do things by half, eh? Billy Bird just looked relieved. The Astra’s not handling any better “I’m just a glutton for punishment,” he said. John Marshall had to stop and change a puncture in Gribun so that cost him over 3 minutes. Tommy Graham was quite expressive “I’ve never seen owt like it out there, I can’t get to grips at all.” Ian Chadwick had a puncture in the wee Peugeot, and it’s a new car but it’s getting better now. Neil Morgan went swimming at Dervaig when he went off, he’s got brake problems, but still going. And Paul Daniel was full of praise for young Kris Hall “he caught me in there like I was standing still, full credit to the lad, you’ve got to take your hat off to him.”

It looks as though Dougi Hall is out. He was spotted parked up facing the wrong way.

Yer Auld Pal, Jaggy Bunnet – Saturday, 2.00 am, Salen Hotel.

P.S. When Gerry Ralston, ‘mine host’ at the Salen Hotel brought in a tray of sandwiches for the already weary officials, he warmed the heart and the stomach of an Old Jaggy too. Never did a tomato and gammon sannie taste so good!